Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is off to a magical start for 2021. Last weekend's Blast Premier Global Finals event, where Natus Vincere, better known as Navi, pulled off an incredible come-from-behind victory, became the most-watched match in Counter-Strike's online tournament history. It was a fight to the death.

The event had it all, but by the end the biggest story was Navi, who was relegated to the loser's bracket early on, adopting a six-man rotation strategy (Counter-Strike teams are made up of five players, and most tournaments stick with the same five players), with Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev, considered by many to be the strongest player, was at the center of it all, and on Day 2, Navi lost to Team Liquid (despite s1mple's incredible score of 36 flags on Nuke) and had to go to the Loser's Bracket. From there, they beat Complexity and G2 to take revenge on Team Liquid in the Loser's Bracket final. The match ended in a 2-0 win for Navi, but it was an incredible match and was like doing to Liquid what Liquid had done to them.

This tournament was emblematic of why Counter-Strike continues to be such a fascinating esport. Teams consistently won come-from-behind wins in the eco-rounds, crazy four-man towers trying to snipe the top of your head in the overpass, aces galore, and close games for the majority of the game.

Navi's final opponent was Team Vitality, which was not only a great match, but the biggest CS:GO match in this pandemic online-only tournament era, peaking at 687,691 concurrent viewers (the 2017 offline ELeague Major was Counter-Strike's largest-ever audience, estimated at just under 1,337,000). Subsequently, a VOD including both the match and the final was confirmed, and one day later the current views of the match on Youtube and Twitch were 2.64 million and 4.206 million, respectively, for a total of 6.85 million viewers.

Navi vs. Vitality began with a wildly entertaining battle in Nuke, which Navi won 19-17 in overtime after going behind. With Navi trailing 9-15, Perfect scored a quad kill from the open to put Navi away.

Vitality won a close game 16-12 on Overpass, with Dust 2 deciding the match. Navi, led by the always top flag s1mple, put its prestige on Counter-Strike's most iconic map, winning 16-12.

The final match followed between Navi and Astralis, but stranger things happened. The match started with a tight scoreline for Nuke, s1mple and Electronic beat Navi 16-12.

The match ended with a moment in counterstrike meme history.

Then the second match began, and something changed. More precisely, Navi's team composition.

Navi played this tournament with a six-player team, a rarity in the CS:GO pro scene. Some say it is best to stick with five players throughout the entire event, but Navi's tactics included rotation: this time, on a specific map, in this case Inferno, Navi switched players between B1T and Flamie. B1T is a 17-year-old Ukrainian, who used to play for Navi's He used to play for the junior team.

NAVI deserves great credit for continuing to trust its players and its system. The team had previously lost in the inferno with B1T in this very tournament, which was no sure thing, but it worked like a dream in this final: the addition of B1T changed Navi's rhythm, and s1mple and electronic continued to play like gods in human form. 4 What started out as an evenly matched match of 4 against 4 changed dramatically in the ninth round, as Navi first executed a brutal CT defense, stealing caches and resources from Astralis, and then played the most solid site defense I have ever seen.

As momentum grew, I started to get emotionally attached to Astralis: 10-5 at halftime, Navi on the T-side was all over the place. s1mple's flicks, world class.

Boombl4 and Perfecto were suddenly in great form, and it felt like none of the Navi players missed a shot; surrounded by three Navi players at the A site, they were triangulated, held back, and brought down by a quick burst from behind. No chance, no chance: the Na'Vi were crowned champions, and the player shot afterwards showed s1mple wiping away tears.

Full streams follow: Nuke's match starts here, Inferno's second match starts here.

One of the side themes leading up to the Blast premiere series was s1mple's current status as a top player. the nature of the CS:GO scene is such that most of this was good natured mockery, and some people took it rather too seriously. even Blast itself participated in the action several times during tournament preparations and during the tournament itself.

After winning the tournament, s1mple was interviewed on-stream and did not gracefully answer questions about his being number one, only reiterating his commitment to improving in the game. 'Of course I'm not going to relax. As I said before, I want to be at this level for years.

This leads to Valorant's question, but S1mple just laughs. 'No, no, no, forget about this game.'

Fair play to Astralis for taking L humorously.

The Blast Global Premiere was a brilliant start for competitive Counter-Strike in 2021 and a reminder of how unpredictable, exciting, and full of drama the esports scene is. The king of the competitive scene, the game maintains a level of surprise and elite play that other titles can only dream of. Now in its ninth year, the game is more popular than ever, and any time you tune in, you'll be thrilled to be reminded why.